By Ali Carey, Contributing Writer
In the weeks since the alarming news of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal broke, PSU has seen some big changes.
Iconic football coach and former Presidential Medal of Honor nominee Joe Paterno was fired, president Graham Spanier was ousted and athletic director Tim Curley and former senior vice president Gary Schultz were charged with perjury.
In the days that followed the initial news of the scandal more and more disturbing evidence surfaced. Amidst the controversy, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett appeared to be coming out relatively clean.
Gov. Corbett chastised university officials that failed to stop former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky from abusing children. Appearing in front of numerous national television audiences, the freshman governor came across as a confident prosecutor committed to making things right at Penn State.
Since then there has been a change of tone in the public sphere, and critics have begun to ask why Gov. Corbett why he didn’t do more to stop Sandusky himself.
Gov. Corbett served as Pennsylvania’s Attorney General until January 2011, meaning that Corbett was the state’s top law enforcer during six year’s of Sandusky’s crimes. The case began during his tenure, but proceeded slowly.
Some are questioning Gov. Cobett’s priorities as Attorney General which lead him not to close on Sandusky’s case once and for all during his tenure.
As columnist Buzz Bissinger of Newsweek/The Daily Beast wrote, “the way his office handled the investigation raises inevitable and legitimate questions about why an alleged sexual predator was allowed to remain at large for nearly three years while the grand jury investigated.”
Corbett gained a seat on the Penn State board in January but never told his fellow board members or university officials to bar Sandusky from campus until his arrest this month.
According to Corbett’s Press Secretary Kevin Harley, the Governor could not legally disclose information about Sandusky to the board because he would have been violating the grand jury secrecy oath that he took. Pennsylvania law forbids prosecutors from disclosing grand jury proceedings. Only judges can give permission to break the secrecy provision.
Gov. Corbett has also come under fire for personally approving a $3 million state grant to Sandusky’s charity, The Second Mile Foundation. Sandusky allegedly met many of his victims through the charity.
Harley countered that the charity “hasn’t been charged with anything.”
In an interview Wednesday with CBS, Gov. Corbett explained that when he approve the grant for Second Mile he knew that Sandusky had already been removed from the organization.
However, Gov. Corbett has since decided to rescind the grant.
“The Second Mile had good purposes,” Corbett said. “I’d like to see it go forward. I don’t know whether it will be able to continue to go forward, and I hope there is a successor to the organization. Right now we have to pull back the grant.”
Gov. Corbett is continuing to defend the timeline of Sandusky’s investigation.
“I believe the Office of Attorney General did everything they could, moved this case along as quickly as we could with the resources available,” said Corbett.
“There isn’t any Governor in recent memory, to me, in this state that has done more to protect children than me so if you think I delayed it for any reasons, you’re wrong,” Gov. Corbett said.
Loading ...
21 Responses
Why isn’t anyone investigating Governor Corbett’s role in the Penn State Cover-up. It’s apparent that he abused his position as PA Attorney General. It’s been reported that,
“ As the state’s attorney general in 2009, Corbett headed a state investigation into accusations against the revered former coach. Although his office denies it, there are multiple confirmations that Corbett assigned no one from his office to follow up on the charges: just one state trooper, a state trooper ‘not authorized to bring charges against Sandusky.’
In addition, when Corbett was sworn in as governor in 2011, he still had not informed The Second Mile Foundation that their founder was under investigation. Instead, as a candidate for governor, he took $650,000 in donations from members of the Second Mile’s unknowing board, even allowing their chairman to hold a fundraiser for his campaign!” Really? I hope I’m not the only person in Pennsylvania that finds this disturbing!
I hope someone outside of Central PA is looking into this besides Louis Freeh.
If Corbett is not investigated the integrity of the entire state is at risk.
We can’t have someone in power who would allow something like this to continue on his watch as AG.
Why isn’t anyone investigating Governor Corbett’s role in the Penn State Cover-up. It’s apparent that he abused his position as PA Attorney General. It’s been reported that,
“ As the state’s attorney general in 2009, Corbett headed a state investigation into accusations against the revered former coach. Although his office denies it, there are multiple confirmations that Corbett assigned no one from his office to follow up on the charges: just one state trooper, a state trooper ‘not authorized to bring charges against Sandusky.’
In addition, when Corbett was sworn in as governor in 2011, he still had not informed The Second Mile Foundation that their founder was under investigation. Instead, as a candidate for governor, he took $650,000 in donations from members of the Second Mile’s unknowing board, even allowing their chairman to hold a fundraiser for his campaign!” Really? I hope I’m not the only person in Pennsylvania that finds this disturbing!
I hope someone outside of Central PA is looking into this besides Louis Freeh. He’s been bought and paid for by Corbett as well. In return, Corbett was barely mentioned in the report.
If Corbett is not investigated the integrity of the entire state is at risk.
We can’t have someone in power who would allow something like this to continue on his watch as AG.
Now, 6-13-12 Sandusky is on trial finally. Tom Corbett should be tried too and put in jail.
This idiot and the other republicans are the result of riling up the angry idiots that the 1% need to gain republican seats. Now he is shorting school districts which means taxes will go up. In upland chester a major contributor owns the charter school and he has strangled the funding for the public school. The charter school his friend owns is getting state money but the district is about to close due to the cut of state funds, and the property tax base is low, it is a poor community, the very reason there are state funds flowing into the area. These education cuts will be used to bring opposition to democrats at the local level who will be audacious enough to suggest raising the missing revenue through tax increses on property. How dare they want toilet paper and electricity in the schools!
Mark my word they will stand back and say look look all the democrats want to do is raise taxes. when just like at the federal level it was republican cuts that caused the shortfall that needs to be addressed. Wake up pennsylvania and america the republicans are not on your side.
This type of person doesnt care about children, only personal gain and political paybacks.
If there are so many people who think Mr. Corbett is guilty of not doing his job with Sandusky because he had his eye on becoming a terrible, greedy Governor of Pennsylvania. Why is nothing being done. He is in his mansion, he is top dog. He should be held accountable for not doing his job. He could have saved kids from abuse, but he just didn’t care. Now he is ruining our state. Our education system will ruin our children because of his terrible cuts to our schools. Does he think that he won’t be judged someday and he will have to answer to a Higher Power for being such a horrible person. He should be ashamed of himself every time he looks in the mirror.
Corbett had well over 2 years to file charges against Sandusky regarding the 2008 incident at the local high school.
How long does it take to interview the victim, a possible witness, and the accused? Three people here.
This should have been done in less than a month.
When Corbett ran for governor he took money for The Second Mile. What a conflict of interest.
Corbett talks about failing a moral obligation? Corbett’s near the very top of this list. And he certainly failed his duty as attorney general.
Dear Honorable fellow bloggers,
Terrible Tom Corbett is a monstrous hypocrite, and should be recalled or impeached. Terrible Tom used the Pa. Attorney General’s office as his proxy campaign headquarters, investigating only those who could further Terrible Tom’s political ambitions for the Governorship.
Terrible Tom covered up and continues to cover-up for yet another Pennsylvania atrocity:
THE LYNCHING OF VIRGINIA SOENTGEN
Check it out on YouTube, and check out out tessellating Vanilla Sky Photobucket.com presentation at:
http://www.Photobubcket.com/albums/a288/Psoentgen/
Shame and Dishonor on you Mr. Governor!
Corbett approved Paterno’s firing because he stated Paterno didn’t do enough. Does this mean that had Paterno gone to the police then the abuse would have been stopped immediately instead of corbett’s 3 year grand jury probe? I guess Paterno could have stopped it immediately but Corbett couldn’t.
Corbett needs to be investigated and possibly impeached from office. In his news conference he made it very clear he was very concern about the saftey of the childern. But that’s not the case when you leave a acussed sexual abuser roam the streets for another 3 years to pray on other childern under his watch. Did he do all he could to get this predator off the streets and that’s NO. He can defend himself all he wants and use the legal system as an excuse and he can try and keep telling everyone we just don’t understand how a grand jury investigation works and we wanted to make sure we had a strong case. Bottom line is, this predator should have been arrested on the spot once victim one came forward. Just like Paterno and everyone else at Penn State that knew about it, Corbett also knew and left it go for 3 years. He’s just as guilty as all the rest and should be punished for his delayed actions as AG.
Corbett is as guilty as Paterno, McQueary, Second Mile, PSU admin and board of trustees. Staying silent is equal to guilt in this situation. He may as well have raped the children himself. Boys were continually abused because of the silence of the supposed leaders who should have been protecting the innocent instead of promoting their careers. If Corbett is not held accountable and removed from office, there is no justice. His agenda is to destroy PA by destroying public education. Clearly this is a politician who is motivated by pay-offs and lobbying from those backing charter schools and testing. The man is a sociopath. No conscience only self promotion motivates Corbett. If he is not removed from office, PA will be a shell of a state. Corbett claims to be for children, but he is obviously driven by money without remorse. He will destroy this great state if allowed to stay in office.
I will be the first to sign that petition to get Corbett out of office..I am sure he has taken lotsst of money to close his eyes in other cases, they should investigate his office and staff when he was the A.G., he definately committed conspiracy and fraud, and endangered all those poor innocent children, just for his gain, at the lives of innocent people…disgusting!!!!
Hmmm, what is the recall process for a PA Governor? How many petition signatures?
Corbett should be ashamed of himself for not doing more. We citizens and residents of PA will remember his inaction when it comes to vote in the next election most certainly. It’s an atrocity against the children who were molested when he knew or should have known it was going on – but he let the investigation continue to their detriment.
Corbett himself should be charged criminally!!!
Corbett is a disgrace. He is out to ruin public education, which essentially victimizes kids. With the Sandusky case, he turned a blind eye, and was clearly involved in the cover up of Camelot, known as Penn State. At least he did not blame the teachers for Sandusky’s crimes!
How can he say that Paterno and Spanier didn’t do enough on Thursday, 17th, when he is sitting on the board on the 16th, and knew himself? How can he go on national media and try to use this to actually polish his image? The cover up is still in progress and I hope honorable, determined investigation is shines thru.
If you follow the bread crumbs you will find Corbett’s handler told him to hold off until after the election and then to wait until the season was underway just before the general election. Yeah it is about the kids…..it is sadly about politics.
CORBETT WAS PAID HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE SECOND MILE TRUSTEES TO TAKE THE “SECOND MILE SCANDAL” FROM SECOND MILE FOUNDATION AND TO TURN IT INTO THE “PENN STATE SCANDAL” Follow the money it answers everything. Did he get away with it? Only time will tell.
Corbett appointed Linda Kelly, Corbett appointed Trooper Noonan,Corbett headed the entire investigation, Corbett voted to fire President and Coach Paterno on an investigation Corbett started? Why did Corbett gave a 3 million dollar grant to Sandusky who he knew was a child molestor, WHY? The Media was duped by Corbett hopefully its not too late. Media should start asking Corbett why he didnt tell Board of Trustees at Penn State that he should not vote to fire Paterno and President Spanier because he had a conflict of interest,Why? Why did Corbett campaign get hundreds of thousands of dollars directly from Second Mile and why was the Chairman of Second Mile asking all his friends at Second Mile to donate to Corbett? Was Corbett paid to cover for Second Mile? Why did Corbett create a media frenzy? Why did he announce the vote to fire at 10:15 pm at night? very suspicious timing of release thrust onto Penn State during football season when allegations didnt happen during football season. Why did he leak the story on a computer glitch as he called it? Why did he investigate this case for 6 years? Could it be he needed time to pass to hide the hundreds of thousands of dollars? This guy needs to answer all these questions and many more. It is against the law to represent both partys of a lawsuit. Why bring suit against Penn State then sit on Penn State board and discuss and vote how to pay for the defense of Penn State? This is very crazy and we need the Governor to answer each one. Please help by forwarding these questions to Media. Thanks
CORBETT IS GUILTY! Corbett’s campaign were paid HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars from the Second Mile board of trustees to take the “Second Mile Charity Scandal” from Second Mile and turn it into the it the “Penn State Scandal” Just look at the facts. Second Mile founder Jerry Sandusky who molested children under Second Mile supervision, using Second Mile rented facilities, and kids that were enrolled in Second Mile summer camps. Second Mile stood to lose everything so they paid >Corbett thousands to take the focus of Grand Jury investigation from Second Mile and place it on PSU. Corbett then with his 5 appointees voted as Penn State board of trustee’s members to FIRE the President and Paterno. Corbett and his 5 appointees should NEVER have voted on a investigation he started. Conflict you bet big time? Corbett after investigating Sandusky 4 years gives Sandusky and his friends a 3 million dollar grant. WHY?
At a news conference last Thursday, Governor Tom Corbett was asked whether he believed Paterno and Spanier did enough to stop Sandusky, he said, “I was disappointed in their actions. … Their actions caused me to not have confidence in their ability to continue to lead.” And they were subsequently fired.
So, why did it take Mr. Corbett and University Officials so long to take action and to prepare the public of the Grand Jury report; to warn students, alumni and supporters of a possible PR nightmare 7 months ago when the Grand Jury report was first leaked? It shows complete disregard for the Penn State community.
I, too, have lost confidence in both Mr. Corbett and the the Board of Trustees actions and their ability to lead. I see it as a lack of foresight and acceptance that our University was in serious trouble. I see it as a collective failure and call for their dismissals as well.
victimized kids couldn’t make campaign donations, so who cares….
Corbett’s election may be the stupidest thing Pennsyltuckians have ever inflicted upon themselves.
Haven’t I seen some reports that there have been upwards of anywhere between $250K and $600K campaign contributions from Sandusky and Second Mile connections–a.k.a “reasons”– why he would delay or cover up the investigation? You guys should do an update story on that. The Gov. did the national media circuit using this scandal to raise his national profile, meanwhile evidence is coming to light that he may actually have been rewarded for not handling this properly while he was A.G. Disgusting. I can’t wait until we have a new A.G. who will investigate Corbett and there will be a reckoning for him.